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Chapter 164 – Goodbye Home
🕑 Added 2024-12-23 06:24:06 +0000 UTCBenton grinned. He had the core of his sect placed. The Administration Hall, the Library, the Lecture Hall, the Amphitheater, six pavilions, and a couple of auxiliary buildings had been installed near the eventual gate. A short distance away was the Contribution Points Shop and the Trials Pagoda. Farther on was the arena.
That was a great start.
With the work locations clearly established, he needed places for all his people to live and chose the large empty area opposite the arena to build the residential section. On his way there, he dropped the cafeteria, a large, single-story building that had enough kitchen space and seating capacity to handle roughly five hundred people at once. As long as everyone didn’t go for meals at exactly the same time, it should work as the main eating location until sect membership reached into the thousands. Which was why he sited it where he did, halfway between the CBD and the housing area.
Once he reached the sector he’d selected, his first placement was the Outer Sect Pavilion, an eleven-story building that contained sixty apartments easily capable of holding up to one hundred eighty sect members, more if they really wanted to stuff them inside. He planned to mainly use it for children and temporary housing for new, non-village recruits.
Dotted around the area along planned curved roads much like a suburban development back in the good old US of A, he placed twenty family homes of various sizes and configurations and thirty single dwellings favored by many cultivators belonging to various sects.
Hmm.
All told, he could easily house about three hundred members, which was good. The capacity slightly exceeded the current membership. On the negative side, he’d was all out of dwellings from his ring, and the Rising Tide Sect was growing rapidly. There was no way he’d be able to fit all the people in the village into the current structures on the sect grounds.
To do so, he’d need to begin either building his own houses or moving ones from the village onto the grounds. Neither of those options appealed to him, though. All the structures taken from the Righteous Rain Sect, while having various appearances, had a certain aesthetic similarity that he liked. The village houses would clash terribly, and the time required to build new ones while maintaining any kind of architectural conformity would be problematic.
It seemed like a visit to Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town was in order in the near future. Which was a good idea on multiple fronts. For one thing, he had kind of promised Fatty Ren a solution to his cultivation stagnation, and recruiting the large Town Lord might just be a way to speed up the growth of the Rising Tide Sect so that Benton could get to Nascent Soul even faster.
He would feel much better about the security situation if he were stronger than any known cultivator on the continent. Fighting against an opponent with an aura had not been easy or fun. If that opponent had been a human with scores of mastered techniques, Benton may not have won.
Adding that out-of-town trip to his mental To Do List, he moved on to his next priority—getting the sect moving in the right direction. The beast tide had been a positive in many ways. Lots of sect members had made significant improvements. Pretty much everyone had gotten at least some experience out of the deal. The sect would be flush with material wealth from all the spoils for the beasts they’d killed. And best of all, no one had gotten killed. The village hadn’t even suffered any significant damage.
The event couldn’t have gone any better.
It had, however, disrupted his plans. Production on the wall had completely ceased, and for the most part, separation of sect members into their various pavilions had been abandoned as most everyone concentrated on learning weapon skills. Almost no progress had been made on pill production, and efforts to increase knowledge of formations for anyone but himself had been severely hampered.
Of course, the news wasn’t all bad in terms of crafting. Forging and fletching had both proceeded at a fantastic pace, putting those sect members ahead of where they might have otherwise had been. Body Cultivation had also been pushed heavily. There was no way so many would have advanced so far absent the threat presented by the tide. And obviously, the number of hours spent practicing weapons had been immense, putting almost everyone further along the path toward Mastery than he would have otherwise expected.
Still, the sect needed to be able to win the peace just as much as being able to prevail in war. They needed crafting and production, not just weapons and fighting. His disciples needed to build and create.
Starting in the morning, he’d refocus everyone on those tasks.
He Quickstepped to the village and found Yang Xiu cultivating in her house.
“Cancel my orders to have the three Foundation Establishment cultivators come to me at dawn. We need a council meeting instead. Oh, and I forgot to reward Pan Jiang and the other Poison Claw Sect members for their assistance. Ask them to attend as well.”
“Yes, Master.”
As the sun was still in the process of rising, all the council members—Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, Zhong Wen, Wan Ai, Zou Tian, Shi Long, Ye Zan, Hou Yazhu, Xun Wu, Peng Zhen, Zi Delan, Mo Jian, Guang Yin, Xiang Da, and Pan Xiaolian—arrived at the arena accompanied by Kang Lin, Pan Jiang, and the other four Poison Claw Sect members who had participated in the beast tide.
“Today represents the end of an era,” Benton said sadly.
All the assembled cultivators looked at him with confusion writ large on their faces.
“It’s our last council meeting at the arena,” Benton said. “In fact, we’ll no longer be using the arena for meetings or inductions at all. From now on, it will be for spectated sparring and tournaments only. Council meetings will be held on the third floor of the new Administrative Hall and inductions and any meetings requiring the entire sect will be held in the amphitheater.”
They looked just as confused. Perhaps they were all too young to mourn small changes, but he would always remember the arena as being more to the sect than simply a place to house fights. It would always be the sect’s first official building. In a way, they were saying goodbye the sect’s first home.
“I’ll try to be brief. The purpose of today’s meeting is to reset the direction of the sect now that the beast tide is past.” Benton turned to Guang Yin, the old wood harvester. “One very high priority is to get the wall built around the sect grounds. Full speed ahead on production.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Benton met the mayor’s eyes. “Another high priority is to get the last couple of induction classes into their respective pavilions. Interview each person and assign them based on their interests. Alchemy and Formations need the most help long term but are the most ill equipped to get people started. I’ll take a personal interest in helping organize both of those. Martial is both useful short and long term and is ready to accept and train new members. If anyone is waffling between Martial and something else or can’t decide, try to push them to that decision.
“Woodworking, forging, and healing should be pretty straightforward. If the person was already at least apprenticed in one of those fields and wants to continue, then it’s a no brainer. Otherwise, use your judgment. We also need to get started growing herbs. That will be a new pavilion. If we don’t have at least five farmers already, let’s prioritize that for the next induction.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“All of you who are pavilion leaders,” Benton said, “I know administration is a responsibility that takes time away from other tasks, but it is crucial to the sect’s long term success. Please think about how you want to organize your pavilion and how you can both teach and utilize new members. I’m available if you have questions.”
Some of his leaders would have no problem, especially experienced masters like the expert blacksmith, Xun Wu, the harvester, Guang Yin, and the old healer, Pan Xiaolian. If anything, they could teach Benton a thing or two. Others, like Wan Ai, were overwhelmed by even the thought of leading others. But that was okay. He was confident she’d grow into the role. Which she would very much need to do. Production of the baths needed to continue while they shifted their training to create pills.
“One final task,” Benton said. “I left the corpses of the sixth, seventh, and eighth waves where they died. I want three teams, each led by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, to go out and collect the spoils.”
He could see the obvious question on their faces. “Go ahead and ask.”
“Why didn’t you just collect them, Master?” Yang Xiu said.
“Anyone care to answer that for me?”
No one spoke for a moment, and as Benton had half expected, it was Zou Tian who finally came up with an answer.
“Experience, Master.”
“Good,” Benton said. “Elaborate.”
“Everything that you do for us is something that we don’t get to experience doing for ourselves. Even though storing bodies in a spatial ring is a relatively easy thing to accomplish, it is an important task that needs doing.”
“Exactly. But you left off that it’s also an opportunity to gain contribution points, which is important to the sect and its members. I want each of the three teams to include the Foundation Establishment cultivator and one guard, but I want the actual work of finding and separating the bodies to be accomplished by regular sect members, the lower ranked, the better. Understood?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Great, now the final topic for today, rewards for our allies.” Benton turned to Kang Lin. “As my disciple, you’re able to participate in the same rewards as the Rising Tide Sect members. I hope that you’re not too terribly disappointed not to also share in the same bounty as your actual sect members.”
She smiled. “No, Master. This one is not quite that greedy.”
Ha. He did like her playful nature and really hoped things worked out between her and Yang Ru. She would be good for him.
“Good,” Benton said. “Pan Jiang, may I please check your cultivation?”
The boy, of course, assented.
“Not bad,” Benton said. “Earth grade method?”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Hmm.
“Okay, I think you’re best off advancing to Foundation Establishment with the method and techniques you’re currently using. How about an IOU that you can claim for a new method or technique of your choice once you advance?”
Pan Jiang nodded enthusiastically.
“Deng Meixiang,” Benton said. “Is it okay if I check your cultivation?”
“Of course, Sect Leader,” the archer said.
Benton kept his face expressionless, but he wanted to grimace. His best guess was that the girl’s cultivation method was rated low profound at best. Still, she was talented enough that she’d probably reach Foundation Establishment. Eventually. Maybe.
He explained that situation to her.
“I can offer you a new cultivation method for Qi Gathering and can even reset your cultivation if you want. Your other option, though, is the same one that I gave Pan Jiang. I can give you a top heaven grade Foundation Establishment cultivation method once you advance.”
The look of avarice on her face at the thought of what he offered was almost funny, but it was tempered with the realization that she wasn’t guaranteed to ever make that breakthrough.
Benton sighed. “How about this—if you take the Foundation Establishment option, I’ll also promise to provide pills for your breakthrough if your bottleneck takes more than six months.”
He didn’t like committing his dwindling supply of Shop Points, but with having so many Sect Points, he could always simply master alchemy enough so that he could created the necessary pills.
“Yes, Sect Leader. Gratitude, Sect Leader!”
The evaluations of the other three kids were similar, and Benton ended up making them each the same offer. The number of points he’d be spending on creating Foundation Establishment techniques would have made him apoplectic not that long ago, but he wouldn’t be attuning the methods to their exact qi aspects. Some of his sect members would probably be able to use them eventually.
The Poison Claw Sect kids deserved the boon for their service to his sect, and he could afford to give it to them. Besides, he wanted it known far and wide that the Rising Tide Sect greatly rewards those who help it.
He wanted their reputation to be as a fantastic friend and a fearsome enemy. The rewards he was giving was the first step to establishing the first of those. Hopefully, he’d never have to demonstrate the latter.
